The Ned M'Keown Stories: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume ThreeCarleton, William
General
The Ned M'Keown Stories: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume Three
Carleton, William
Ireland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
“Well, as I was telling you, there was great sport going on. In one
corner, you might see a knot of ould men sitting together, talking over
ould times--ghost stores, fairy tales, or the great rebellion of '41,
and the strange story of Lamh Dearg, or the _bloody hand_--that,
maybe, I'll tell you all some other night, plase God: there they'd sit
smoking--their faces quite plased with the pleasure of the pipe--amusing
themselves and a crowd of people, that would be listening to them with
open mouth. Or, it's odd, but there would be some droll young fellow
among them, taking a rise out of them; and, positively, he'd often find,
them able enough for him, particularly ould Ned Magin, that wanted at
the time only four years of a hundred. The Lord be good to him, and rest
his sowl in glory, it's he that was the pleasant ould man, and could
tell a story with any one that ever got up.
“In another corner there was a different set, bent on some piece of
divilment of their own. The boys would be sure to get beside their
sweethearts, any how; and if there was a purty girl, as you may set it
down there was, it's there the _skroodging_, (* pressure of the crowd)
and the pushing, and the shoving, and, sometimes, the knocking down
itself, would be, about seeing who'd get her. There's ould Katty Duffy,
that's now as crooked as the hind leg of a dog, and it's herself was
then as straight as a rush, and as blooming as a rose--Lord bless
us, what an alteration time makes upon the strongest and fairest of
us!--it's she that was the purty girl that night, and it's myself that
gave Frank M'Shane, that's still alive to acknowledge it, the broad of
his back upon the flure, when he thought to pull her off my knee. The
very gorsoons and girshas were sporting away among themselves, and
learning one another to smoke in the dark corners. But all this, Mr.
Morrow, took place in the corpse-house, before ten or eleven o'clock at
night; after that time the house got too thronged entirely, and couldn't
huld the half of them; so by jing, off we set, maning all the youngsters
of us, both boys and girls, out to Tom's barn, that was _red up_ (*
Cleared up for us--set in order), there to commence the plays. When we
were gone, the ould people had more room, and they moved about on the
sates we had left them. In the mane time, lashings of tobacco and snuff,
cut in platefuls, and piles of fresh new pipes, were laid on the table
for any one that wished to use them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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